Electronics in the classroom

[Tsutarja]

Ever had that one teacher or professor that's very strict and uptight on using electronics (from listening to music or using your phone/tablet/laptop) in class regardless if they're lecturing or not, and they threaten to take your device away if you had it out? What are some stories you have for this, or how about observations of this happening to other people?

And if you don't, how about when your professors/teachers don't enforce the "no electronics in the classroom" policy. Do you see everyone follow the rules anyways, or have their devices out because the instructor doesn't care?

 

[starseed galaxy auticorn]

I did. In most of my classes, we weren't allowed to listen to music, even during individual work either. If we did, we would get them taken away. It really sucked for me because music was the only way I could concentrate. It was even worse in Study Hall because the teacher made no exceptions whatsoever towards this. I never did my homework in that class because I was so distracted.

I don't know about other devices. I didn't really have anything else since iPads only just came out not too long after I graduated high school I think? I could be wrong.

I did see kids hiding away their headphones under their shirt and put their hoods on. I used to do this a lot, but I felt bad about breaking the rule, so I had to suck it up and deal with being distracted. I feared getting caught with whatever I had my music on at the time (I don't remember what I had, other than it being an apple product).

 

[Nolafus]

Every single one of my teachers in high school absolutely hated electronics in their classroom while they were lecturing. Some teachers let us listen to music during tests and individual assignments, so that was pretty cool. It helped keep me calm, so I think I did better because of it.

We had an oblivious science teacher, so my friends and I would all battle pokemon in the middle of her lecture. Never got caught, and never got beat. :D

 

[Flushed]

I had a teacher who gave us 10 points at the end of the semester just for not getting caught with electronics, which I thought was pretty interesting. But of course, it was high school, and many people got caught haha.

Once in a while we were allowed to listen to music, but idk, it was weird having headphones in while everyone around you was taking a test or something. Plus I'm always paranoid the music is too loud and people can hear what I'm listening to.

 

[Tryndamere]

Electronics are banned in my school. Any sighting of any kind of electronic device will result in immediate seizure on the spot and it will never be returned. Moreover it's MY duty to search bags of fellow students' for gadgets. :/

 

[Hiatus]

I personally haven't had this kind of thing happen to me, but when I was in high school, though, few teachers were very strict in regards to electronics. If they'd seen you using any of this stuff while they were teaching, they would threaten to take it off your hands and not give it back until the end of semester. Some stood by their words and actually took actions, while others didn't; they'd usually just give verbal warning and try to talk it out. :b

 

[Blu·Ray]

In my school the whole electronics thing is a huge problem. In most lessons, there are only a handful of us actually listening to what the teacher is saying, while most just browse Facebook or text each other. But on of the main premises of my current class is to learn us to take responsibility over our learning, so the teachers don't do anything about it. In a way, I think that it is just fair that the ones who aren't able to take the responsibility over their own learning, but on the other hand, I can't help but feel bad about all the weak students who are prone to distraction.

But I still don't find any reason to ban electronics altogether. A ban is not the way to work around this problem, as people will just find other ways of getting distracted and wasting their time. We need a change of attitude towards learning in our society.

 

[Belldandy]

Cellphones and iPods were banned in my classes when I was at school, unless the teacher specifically said it was OK. For exams, they were always banned, as kids were relaying answers to them through recorded .mp3s or text messages.

It's both good and bad, but at the end of the day, difficult to enforce. Kids text beneath their desks anyways or they set it inside the desk or behind a text book. In highschool, though, it should be more strictly banned; in university and college, it's really to the teacher's discretion. After all, by that time you should be mature enough (especially if you've paid thousands to be there) to not text in class.

I'm really on the fence. Depending on how rowdy the class is, I like my iPod to concentrate. If the class is quiet, then no iPod is OK. Some people need background noise to concentrate all the time, though, so it's a bit iffy.

 

[Aeroblast]

In high school it was much more strict, now in universities professors don't care. Ringing is a different story, however.

 

[Davetunes]

Where I am at, BYOT is encouraged, and I use my tech all day. Listening to music is perfectly acceptable in my japanese class, since I am legally fluent, and have the highest grade in the class. I like bringing an Ipad and a phone, and almost all classes accommodate tech. I think this is how most schools should work.

 

[twocows]

Most of my classes were CS classes, so it was pretty well tolerated unless you did something distracting.

I never had any problem with it as long as it wasn't distracting, either. You're paying tuition to be there, if you don't think what the professor is saying is valuable, it's your money. That's how I always saw it, anyway.

 

[pokemasta92]

Talk to students in the classroom and get less work done, nobody panics, because it's all part of the plan. But listen to music on an iPod while concentrating on your work and get it done more quickly, everyone loses their minds!

 

[Raine]

I honestly don't remember whether I've had teachers in high school who were strictly against electronics in class; they were particular about cellphone usage though during class times, not much on laptops because most of would be doing our work meanwhile others are doing unproductive stuff. Professors in university/college settings though, at least in my experience, have such large classes that they don't care whether you show up or not. If you do, they wouldn't care whether you're gaming or actually paying attention either. My college, because I'm part of a computer program, a working laptop that fulfills their system requirements is especially important because everything we do is online.